Snap! Crackle! Pop!

It's the soundtrack to a million blue-light discos, every half-time sporting event in the first half of the '90s and evokes the disturbing image of flat-top haircuts. It is lodged in time, forever linked with Reebok pumps, backward baseball caps and a staple of not only club nights but also fitness centres the world over. It is the discography of Snap!

The first rumblings came in the first month of the 1990s with The Power. The crossover club hit set the tone for the next few years. “We always made music because we liked it and didn't expect anything from it,” says Luca Anzilotti, one half of the production duo. “We were totally taken by surprise by the success.”

The Frankfurt-based duo began making music in 1989 under the aliases Benito Benites and John Garrett III. They were fighting premature assumptions about German music. “German music today is perceived [as] a lot more open-minded than it used to be,” Anzilotti says. Within a year, their first hit was everywhere. They followed up with Rhythm Is A Dancer a year later. After two decades, the duo are still playing those hits. “We still live those tracks as they represent a huge and exciting part of our lives,” Anzilotti says. “The sound is a reflection of the times!”

A reflection, indeed. Those were the heady days of George Bush Sr's administration, the first Gulf War and infectious Eurodance. The two mainstay hits of The Power and Rhythm Is A Dancer are instantly recognisable. “The tracks have a singularly unique sound,” Anzilotti explains. “These tracks show today's producers that being unique is the way to be successful, and not trying to imitate others.”

There were a string of hits before the duo split in 1996. The legacy of those tracks remains with the Snap! hits popping up in films, TV shows and remixes. Though the duo and their collaborators might have pioneered the crossover dance hit, striking at fresh ground, there are certain advantages contemporary dance acts have over their early '90s counterparts. The public perception of DJ acts is definitely one of them. The ability to take advantage of a more approachable and varied public is another, not to mention the advantages of technology in the studio and the ability to release tracks immediately over the internet.

“We didn't have the technical possibilities that producers today have,” says Anzilotti. “In addition, record labels were taken aback when they find out that we were DJs and not musicians!” That's surely not the case now. These days even many bands have a DJing act, spreading out to festivals in a sound-system format. Perceptions are not the only things that have changed. The dance culture has its own way of getting music out. There's not a reliance on mainstream radio, and even then radio has evolved its own way of playing dance music. At the time the duo released The Power, it was a whole different landscape. “Our only real outlets at the time were clubs,” Anzilotti says. “So a track had to be right on target in order to make the crossover to mainstream music. These days there are loads of different paths to success.”

The duo undoubtedly set off a crossover between the club sounds and mainstream radio that has benefited today's acts. For Anzilotti and his partner in rhythm, Michael Münzing, the continued success of varied acts is interesting to watch. Naturally they have their own favourites. “For instance David Guetta, or Timbaland, for being continuously successful and being ahead of others.”

The remixed versions of their hits have been speckled in the charts and attention on the duo rose again after a performance at Glastonbury two years ago. A large world tour is being mounted in 2013. Australian clubs will get an early show from the duo, and be reminded how to party like it's 1990.

Snap! will be playing the following shows:

Wednesday 31 October - Republic Bar, Hobart TAS
Friday 2 November - Academy, Canberra ACT
Saturday 3 November - Villa Nightclub, Perth VIC